By Dan Ambrose: Much has been said of 37-year-old Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-1, 23 KO’s) being old, fat and having stamina problems once his fights go past the midpoint. However, WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KO’s) also has stamina problems and if Mayorga can keep his foot on the accelator past the 6th round in their fight on March 12th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Mayorga could win this one. Cotto, 30, has always had problems with his stamina dating back to fights against Oktay Urkal and Shane Mosley.

Cotto also looked tired in his bouts with Antonio Margarito, Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey when the bouts went past the 6th rounds. In Cotto’s recent fight against Yuri Foreman, Cotto started off well but in the 5th, 6th and the start of the 7th, Cotto was looking tired and taking hits. This tells me that Cotto is there for the taking by Mayorga if the fight goes past the 6th. Mayorga obviously has to put pressure on Cotto, because if he just lets him fight at a slow pace, Cotto sill just move slowly and flick his jabs out without taking any risks.

But Mayorga has the power and the pressure to cause Cotto to run out of gas if he fights smart and keeps Cotto backing up the way that Pacquiao did in their fight. Cotto can fight hard for about four rounds under the best of circumstances. After that, he starts breathing hard, and his skin starts to swell up and bleed. This is where Mayorga can really take the fight to Cotto and get him busted up and running for his life. Cotto doesn’t fight aggressively once he’s bleeding and that’s an important point for Mayorga to remember. He has to get him tired, make him use his legs and out hands on him.